Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy Symptoms: Let's talk about it.

Other symptoms of CAA So, we have all probably heard about the symptoms of a stroke to watch out for. The acronym FAST comes to mind. Look for weakness or sensory changes in the FACE and ARMS, particularly on one side, difficulties with SPEECH and act quickly (TIMELY) to seek medical attention. This message looks different for someone with CAA. Of course, if these symptoms occur take the same action as advised because the person may have had a significant bleed in the brain. However, smaller bleeds and microbleeds look very different. How might these manifest themselves in symptoms that you can see? The answer is they may not. You and the person with CAA may be completely unaware that they are having one or more microbleeds. However, my experience is that you might notice:             They are more fatigued or more confused than usual or they report feeling “a bit off”. A higher degree of agitation or impulsive behaviour but nothing...

MRI and Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy While my husband was in the Stroke Unit they were able to compare his MRI results to those taken two years earlier. It showed a substantial increase in the number of microbleeds throughout his brain in the last two years, all of which had been apparently asymptomatic. Of course this raises the question of how can you have a stroke and not know about it? In CAA it is common for microbleeds to occur without the person or their loved ones being aware of it. It's only when you do an MRI that you can see them. They generally don't show up in a regular CT scan. The image above shows a typical MRI of a person with CAA. So what is your approach and that of your medical practitioners into the future? Given that there is no known cause, no treatment and no cure, do you really want to have 6 monthly or annual scans to prove the deterioration of the condition? What purpose does that serve? We decided, in conjunction with his specialist, that there was li...